Richard Whittall:

The Globalist's Top Ten Books in 2016: The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

Middle East Eye: "

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer is one of the weightiest, most revelatory, original and important books written about sport"

“The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer has helped me immensely with great information and perspective.”

Bob Bradley, former US and Egyptian national coach: "James Dorsey’s The Turbulent World of Middle Eastern Soccer (has) become a reference point for those seeking the latest information as well as looking at the broader picture."

Alon Raab in The International Journal of the History of Sport: “Dorsey’s blog is a goldmine of information.”

Play the Game: "Your expertise is clearly superior when it comes to Middle Eastern soccer."

Andrew Das, The New York Times soccer blog Goal: "No one is better at this kind of work than James Dorsey"

David Zirin, Sports Illustrated: "Essential Reading"

Change FIFA: "A fantastic new blog'

Richard Whitall of A More Splendid Life:

"James combines his intimate knowledge of the region with a great passion for soccer"

Christopher Ahl, Play the Game: "An excellent Middle East Football blog"

James Corbett, Inside World Football

Friday, October 30, 2015

Turkish soccer has offered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
more headaches than likely votes as the Turkish leader battles to ensure that
his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will secure a majority in snap parliamentary
elections on Sunday.

Polls on the eve of the election predict that the AKP will
increase its vote by six percent compared to the June election, enough to form
a single-party government.

Mr. Erdogan, a former soccer player, called Sunday’s
elections after his AKP failed to secure the necessary majority in elections
last June to form a government of its own for a fourth time. The failure
delayed Mr. Erdogan’s plans to make his presidency executive rather than
ceremonial as it is currently envisioned in the Turkish constitution.

The rise of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)
that won 13 percent of the vote in June deprived Mr. Erdogan and his AKP of a
majority. A breakdown in peace talks with Kurdish guerrillas in southeast
Turkey, the eruption of renewed hostilities and various towns declaring
themselves autonomous may win Mr. Erdogan nationalist votes in Sunday’s vote,
but is likely to cost him in predominantly Kurdish towns and cities like
Diyarbakir.

Turkey’s deep-seated political and ethnic fault lines were
being drawn in advance of the election on the soccer pitch with even clubs
believed to be close to the president doing Erdogan few favours.

In Diyarbakir, the rise of the HDP prompted the city’s soccer
club, Diyarbakır Büyükşehir Belediyespor (Diyarbakir Metropolitan Sport), to earlier
this year defy the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) and replace its Turkish
name with a Kurdish one, Amedspor. The club also adopted the yellow, red and
green Kurdish nationalist colours.

Kurdish nationalist feeling was fuelled by Turkey’s
reluctance to help Syrian Kurds when they last year were besieged in the Syrian
town of Kobani by fighters of the Islamic State (IS), the jihadist group that
controls a swath of Syria and Iraq. Many Kurds believe that Turkey for a long
time turned a blind eye to IS because it saw it as a buffer that could prevent
the rise of a Kurdish entity in a part of Syria.

Kurdish nationalism on the pitch is being offset by major soccer
clubs seeking to drum up Turkish patriotism by starting competition matches
with military salutes. Storied Istanbul club Besiktas JK recently wore shirts
proclaiming that “martyrs don't die,” a reference to scores of Turkish soldiers
that have died in attacks by and clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK).

The divide is as much nationalist as it is social. Many of
the soldiers are lower class young men who hail from poorer parts of Turkey and
were unable to pay a $6,000 fee that would have allowed them to avoid military
service. “In this war, the rich are not dying,” said Mehmet Guner, president of
the Association of Martyrs' Families.

The recent disruption of a moment of silence at the
beginning of a European championship match in honour of 102 victims of the
bombing earlier this month of a peace march in Ankara highlighted yet another
Turkish fault line. Fans whistled, jeered and chanted Allahu Akbar (God is
Great) as the Turkish and Icelandic national teams observed the silence.

If all of those problems weren’t enough, Mr. Erdogan is also
getting grief from those clubs he is close to. Trabzonspor ASpresident Ibrahim Hacıosmanoglu, angry over his
team’s draw with Gaziantep SK as a result of a controversial penalty, ordered
the referee to be detained overnight in the stadium until Mr. Haciosmanoglu visited
him in the morning.

As if that were not sufficient reason for controversy, Mr.
Haciosmanoglu caused an uproar with remarks that appeared to denigrate women.

Mr. Haciosmanoglu’s outburst spotlighted the close ties
between Turkish soccer and politics as well as widespread misogyny in the
sport.

It took a 3 AM phone call by Mr. Erdogan to get the referee
freed.

“I told my managers – ‘Show Trabzonspor’s hospitality, order
his tea and coffee and food, until the morning, until I come that referee will
not leave that stadium,'” Mr. Haciosmanoglu said, initially refusing to take
calls from government officials seeking to defuse the situation.

When the referee was finally set free at 3:30 AM, he was
forced to run a gauntlet of hundreds of Trabzonspor fans who shouted abuse of
him.

Referring to Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Haciosmanoglu declared after
the president’s call: “I do not have to pronounce his name; everybody
understands who I’m referring to. Turkey has a leader who serves this nation, a
leader who will leave a strong country to my children in the future… I am ready
to die for him.”

While Mr. Haciosmanoglu’s praise was what Mr. Erdogan wanted
to hear, the Black Sea club leader’s subsequent warning of the fall-out of the
match sparked protest from women activists and members of parliament. “The
Turkish Republic will see what’s going to happen from now on. If we will die,
we will die like a man, we will not live like a woman. Nobody has the power to
make us live like a woman,” Mr. Haciosmanoglu said.

Sexism was also evident a week earlier when supporters of Fenerbahce,
the political crown jewel in Turkish soccer with some 25 million fans, burnt a
blow-up doll dressed in in rival team Galatasaray’s colours after holding a
mock engagement party for it.

“Female students and academics…said the incident reflects on
the one hand the pornographic face of the violence and on the other hand the
hegemonic male mindset which puts women and the enemy on par,” journalist Sibel
Yukler reported for news agency Jinha.

Finally, referee Deniz Coban, made a mockery of Mr.
Erdogan’s successful battle to ensure leniency for match fixers when he days
before his retirement tearfully apologized on national television for calls he
made during a match between Kasimpasa SK and Caykur Rize SK, both teams close
to the president, that ended in a draw. Mr. Erdogan’s family is from the Black
Sea town of Rize while he played for Kasimpasa.

The acquittal in early October of scores of soccer officials
of charges of match fixing, including Fenerbahce chairman Aziz Yildirim, may
earn Mr. Erdogan some votes, but more importantly further highlighted the
incestuous relationship between Turkish politics and soccer that often corrupts
the sport.

The scandal, involving the arrest of 93 soccer executives in
2011, served as a precursor for a corruption scandal that rocked then Prime
Minister Erdogan’s government two years later

It was not immediately clear whether the acquittal would
persuade the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to lift its
two-year ban of Fenerbahce and one-year prohibition on rival Besiktas JK from
playing in European competitions.

Mr. Yildirim was initially sentenced in 2012 to six years in
prison and a $560,000 fine for forming a criminal, match-fixing gang. He served
a year before being released pending retrial. Mr. Yildirim has long asserted
that the case was politically motivated.

Irrespective of whether the match-fixing case was
politically driven or not, it is symptomatic of the degree to which Mr. Erdogan
over the last decade has further politicized a sport that has been tied into
Turkish politics from its inception. It’s a legacy that could come to haunt Mr.
Erdogan whose hunger for power appears to have trumped his love for the game.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

SINGAPORE — As FIFA continues to struggle to maintain its credibility in the midst of ongoing investigations into corrupt practices within the organisation, there remains a sense of uncertainty as to what the future holds for world football’s embattled governing body.

But a clearer picture of the direction FIFA will take towards the long and drawn-out road to redemption is expected to emerge after its presidential election on Feb 26 next year.

So far, five candidates have officially entered the running to become FIFA’s next president — Prince Ali bin Hussein, UEFA head Michel Platini, ex-FIFA official Jerome Champagne, former Trinidad and Tobago captain David Nahkid and South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale (see sidebar on right).

Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is reportedly also keen to contest the elections, but as of press time, he has yet to submit his candidacy.

The deadline to formally present their nominations is today.

Of all the potential candidates, however, it is Prince Ali who will most likely effect the necessary reforms within FIFA if elected, said award-winning investigative journalist James Dorsey.

But Dorsey cautioned that Prince Ali would likely lose the election should Sheikh Salman choose to throw his hat into the ring.

“If you’re looking for change within FIFA, then Prince Ali is the most promising candidate,” explained Dorsey, who is a Senior Fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University. “Ali and Champagne are the only two candidates who would probably bring about change. But Ali is the one with a better chance of getting elected.

“Sure, there are minor reforms being introduced in FIFA at the moment. After all, they need to be seen doing something after all that has happened. But while the changes that have been made are important, it still doesn’t tackle the fundamental problems within the organisation.

“Based on the current candidates that are running for the presidency, I foresee it will be a bitter battle between Prince Ali and Sheikh Salman for the presidency.

“But the odds favour Salman, because he will likely take a significant part of the votes from Asia and Africa, while he may also attract the European voters who may have previously favoured Platini.”

The problems of FIFA, Blatter and Platini

While the web of lies and corruption within FIFA has reportedly been intricately woven for more than a decade, it was only in the middle of this year that its problems finally came to a head.

In May, a US-led corruption investigation led to the arrest of several FIFA officials and senior sports marketing executives — an event that ultimately prompted incumbent president Sepp Blatter to resign, just four days after securing a fifth term in office.

The Swiss authorities also launched an investigation into claims that Russia and Qatar had bribed their way to winning the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively.

Earlier this month, Blatter and Platini were provisionally suspended for 90 days by the FIFA ethics committee, which opened full misconduct proceedings against the two men over a 2011 payment of two million Swiss francs (S$2.9 million) from FIFA to the Frenchman.

Having been favourite to replace Blatter at the helm of FIFA, Platini’s stock has fallen dramatically since the scandal broke, although he will still be eligible to run for president if he manages to pass the election integrity checks.

“Platini could have been the next FIFA president,” Dorsey said.

“But the issue is that his reputation has now been greatly damaged, and he still hasn’t duly accounted for those payments. However, the backdoor is still open for him, so it’s still too early to tell what the Europeans are going to do.

“For now, though, it is Blatter who runs a greater risk of being charged by the authorities, and the keys to how this scandal will pan out lie with the Swiss and US investigators. We don’t know what the Swiss investigations into Blatter will turn up, while the US could decide to expand their investigations dramatically in the future as well.”

The appeal of status quo

While there has been huge reputational damage to FIFA following the recent corruption scandals, Dorsey believes that most people within the organisation would be resistant to too much change, too quickly. And this, he says, would give Sheikh Salman the advantage in the elections.

“He (Salman) doesn’t have a history of huge reform or change,” said Dorsey. “And a large majority of the confederations and national associations are happy with the status quo because they have benefited from it.

“So my guess is that if Sheikh Salman is elected, he will come in and do the minimal changes, while still ensuring a certain degree of continuity within FIFA.”

However, Dorsey added that this does not constitute an endorsement of the alleged corrupt practices that blighted Blatter’s reign: “I personally think Sheikh Salman is not corrupt. But there are three fundamental issues — the flawed patronage system, the unhealthy connection between football and governments, and the relationship between FIFA and the regional confederations — that FIFA needs to sort out, which I doubt he’ll do.

“The recent events in Kuwait and Thailand (the Kuwait Football Association was suspended from international football because of government interference, while the Thailand FA’s executive committee was replaced by a normalisation committee following the 90-day suspension of president Worawi Makudi over a possible breach of ethics) are just the tip of the iceberg. There has to be more regulation of the relationship between politics and sport. Sport must be guarded against political and corporate interference.

“There also needs to be more transparency with the various processes within FIFA. But I doubt these issues in the organisation will be addressed (if Salman is elected), unless it’s imposed from the outside.”

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Never missing an opportunity to shoot itself in the foot, 2022
World Cup-host Qatar has adopted a new law that is more likely to convince
critics that it aims to put a friendly face on its controversial kafala or
sponsorship system rather than radically reform a legal framework that trade
unions and human rights activists have dubbed modern slavery.

Qatar has been under pressure since winning in 2010 hosting
rights for the 2022 World Cup to radically reform, if not abolish the
sponsorship system that puts workers at the mercy of their employer. Requirements
that employees obtain permission from their employer to switch jobs or travel
abroad were among the main provisions of the sponsorship system targeted by
activists.

The new law streamlines procedures but does not
fundamentally change them. Under the new law, that although signed by Qatar’s
ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, only takes effect a year from
publication in the Gulf state’s official gazette, employees can seek new
employment once their labour contract has expired rather than at any given
point.

The law abolishes the requirement that employees leave the
country for two years before seeking new employment in Qatar if an employer
refuses to grant a no objection certificate. Employees that want to switch jobs
before the termination of their labour contract would still need to obtain
permission from their sponsors as well as the ministries of interior and
labour. Employees with open-ended contracts would only be allowed to switch
jobs after having served five years.

The law inserts the state into the procedure to obtain an
exit visa by obliging employees to inform the interior ministry three days
before their planned departure. The ministry rather than the employee would
then obtain the employer’s consent. The law also grants employees the right to
appeal if the employer refuses permission.

Qatar earlier adopted a law that comes into effect next week
that obliges employers to pay salaries and wages by bank transfer to ensure
on-time payment of workers.

Qatar’s labour system is a focal point of widespread
criticism of the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to the Gulf state by world soccer
body FIFA. The awarding despite Qatar’s slow and disappointing moves to reform
its labour system has already sparked change that has so far failed to convince
critics of the Gulf state’s sincerity in the absence of measures that amount to
more than a streamlining of the existing framework.

In response to criticism, Qatar has, in contrast to other
Gulf states who bar entry to foreign activists and imprison local critics,
engaged with international trade unions and human rights groups. Several Qatari
institutions, including the 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy,
Qatar Foundation and Qatar Rail developed in consultation with organizations
like Amnesty International and Human Rights standards that significantly
improve the working and living conditions of migrant workers who constitute a
majority of Qatar’s population. Activists had expected those standards to be
enshrined in law.

Perceptions that Qatar is not serious about fundamental
reform of its labour system are reinforced by opposition to change by many
Qataris who fear that they as a minority in their own country will see their
culture diluted and lose control of their society.

Opposition has expressed itself in, for example, demands for
greater segregation of migrant workers who largely leave their families behind
to seek employment in Qatar. Doha’s Central Municipal Council (CMC) recently
called on the government to enforce more strictly a five-year old ban on blue-collar
workers living in neighbourhoods populated primarily by families.

CMC member Fatima Ahmed Al Jaham Al Kuwari told the Doha
News that male workers had stood outside of their homes in transparent
undergarments, and that some women had complained that they were being watched
from building windows while they held private parties in their yards. Ms. Al
Kuwari asserted that migrant workers harmed the infrastructure and increased pressure
on local electricity grids.

Ms. Al Kuwari demanded that measures be taken to ensure that
landlords and their tenants respect the “customs and traditions of the Qatari
society.”

Writing in The Peninsula, an English-language Qatari daily,
journalist Rashed Al Audah Al Fadeh charged that “these bachelor workers are
threatening the privacy and comfort of families, spreading like a deadly epidemic
that eats through our social fabric.”

Ms. Al Kuwari and Mr. Al Fadeh were not only highlighting
widespread concern among Qataris but also the fact that the government is
caught between a rock and a hard place. International pressure coupled with the
fallout of the FIFA corruption scandal that has increased the spotlight on
Qatar demands that Qatar respond quickly and forcefully to labour criticism.
Domestic opposition forces the government to move gingerly.

The government so far has manoeuvred that field of tension
poorly. Critics charge that it could have taken steps like a stark rather than
a gradual increase of the number of labour inspectors to enforce existing rules
and regulations that would have conveyed sincerity while at the same time
reassuring Qataris.

One reason Qatar has been reluctant to abolish the exit visa
is the fact that the Gulf state has few extradition treaties with other
countries. As a result, businessmen who hire foreigners to operate their
businesses and give senior managers access to company bank accounts fear that a
manager could empty and account and skip the country.

Critics suggest that the government could have addressed
that concern by offering businesses guarantees modelled on the Federal Deposit
Insurance Company (FDIC) in the United States that guarantees bank deposits up
to a certain amount.

In a first response to the new labour law, International
Trade Union Confederation general secretary Sharan Burrow charged that it added
a new layer of repression for migrant workers. “Promises of reform have been
used as a smokescreen to draw in companies and governments to do business in
Qatar as the government rolls out massive infrastructure developments to host
the 2022 FIFA World Cup,” Ms. Burrow said.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman
Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa’s candidacy for the presidency of world soccer body FIFA
is likely to serve as a litmus test for newly introduced integrity checks on
the group’s executives.

Sheikh Salman, a former soccer player, has consistently like
other members of his ruling family refused to respond to allegations by human
rights groups that he was associated with the detention and abuse of scores of
sports executives and athletes, including national soccer team players, alleged
to have participated in a 2011 popular uprising that was brutally squashed.

Sheikh Salman also played a key role in squashing a 2012
independent audit of AFC finances that raised serious questions about possible
bribery, non-transparency, tax evasion, and sanctions busting in the awarding to
Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG) of a $1 billion master rights agreement.

The audit by a PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) that constituted
the basis for FIFA’s banning for life of former AFC president and FIFA
executive committee member Mohammed Bin Hammam counselled the AFC to seek legal
advice on potential civil and criminal charges and review its contract with
Singapore-based World Sport Group.

AFC officials deny that Sheikh Salman or the group buried
the audit. In a new twist, the officials recently disclosed that in addition to
the audit, PwC had also delivered a report on proposed restructuring of the
AFC. The officials said those recommendations had largely been implemented.

In a reflection of the group’s lack of transparency and
Sheikh Salman’s management style, the disclosure was the first time in three
years since the audit that the AFC referred to a second PwC report. The report
was never made public nor was it clear what PwC recommendations were
implemented. Disclosure of the existence of the report moreover did not explain
why the recommendations of the audit have been ignored.

Sheikh Salman’s secretive management style that bodes ill
for reform of FIFA should he win the world soccer body’s February 26
presidential election is further evident in current AFC negotiations with
potential marketing partners. The AFC has denied reports that the group was
negotiating an extension of its controversial WSG contract. The officials said
the AFC was talking to various companies and had yet to take a decision.

The PwC audit criticized the AFC for failing to put the
contract to tender, a suggestion Sheikh Salman appears to be studiously
ignoring. The audit further raised questions about the valuation of the
contract and unexplained payments of $14 million to Mr. Bin Hammam through an
AFC account by a WSG shareholder in advance of the signing of the original
contract.

The only known time that the AFC took action with regard to
the audit besides honouring FIFA’s banning of Mr. Bin Hammam was earlier this
year when it effectively fired its general secretary, Dato' Alex Soosay, for seeking
to destroy documents relevant to the audit.

Even then, the AFC portrayed Mr. Soosay’s dismissal as a
voluntary resignation even if his departure followed disclosure by this blog
and The Malay Mail of a tape in which financial director Bryan Kuan Wee Hoong testified
that Mr. Soosay had asked him to destroy documents. Mr. Kuan has since
disclosure of the tape left the AFC.

The fact that it took media pressure for Sheikh Salman and
the AFC to act three years after delivery of the audit says much about the
Bahraini’s management style.

The PwC audit suggested that Mr. Soosay had authorized many
of the payments on which it cast legal doubt. “Our transaction review revealed
that items sampled were, in most cases, authorised by the General Secretary or
Deputy General Secretary and the Director of Finance. As signatories these
parties hold accountability for the authorisation of these transactions. We also note the Internal Audit and Finance
Committees were aware of this practice,” the PwC report said.

The AFC and Sheikh Salman’s lack of transparency with regard
to the allegations of his involvement in the arrest and torture of sports officials
and athletes in 2011 as well as in his management of the Asian sports group
contrasts starkly with efforts to clean up soccer governance that have led to
the arrest in Switzerland at the request of the US Justice Department of seven
soccer officials and the suspension of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA
President Michel Platini.

The lack of transparency is also notable given suggestions
that the AFC may be on the radar of the investigation because of Mr. Bin Hammam,
who is believed to have been named as an unidentified co-conspirator in US
indictments, and the AFC’s contract with WSG.

WSG has been linked to Traffic, a sports marketing company is
among those indicted in the US. WSG acquired in 2005 the international
broadcasting rights of the Gold Cup and CONCACAF Champions League operated by
the soccer confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean together
with Traffic.

Traffic´s owner, Brazilian businessman Jose Hawilla, is
cooperating with the FBI in its FIFA investigation, a lawyer for Mr. Hawilla
told The Wall Street Journal. Under the agreement, Mr. Hawilla has admitted to
crimes including money laundering, fraud, extortion, and has agreed to return
$151 million in funds.

Sheikh Salman’s refusal to denounce the alleged abuses of
human rights or to discuss the allegations against him are all the starker given
the fact that an independent fact-finding commission made up of international
rights lawyers that was endorsed by the Bahrain government concluded in
November 2011 that those detained during the uprising had suffered systematic
abuse. Among them were two of Bahrain’s top soccer players.

The report created a basis on which Sheikh Salman could have
been more forthcoming about what happened in 2011 and his alleged role in the
events. Instead, Sheikh Salman has said that there was no reason to apologize
to the players because it was an issue for politicians, not his soccer
federation.

Sheikh Salman, according to information submitted to British
prosecutors, chaired a committee established in 2011 by a decree by a relative,
Prince Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, head of Bahrain’s Supreme Council for Youth
and Sport as well as its Olympic Committee and fourth son of King Hamad, ordering
that measures be taken against those guilty of insulting Bahrain and its
leadership.

Prince Nasser formed the committee after an earlier royal
decree had declared a state of emergency. The royal decree allowed the Bahrain
military to crackdown on the protests and establish military courts, according
to the information provided to the prosecutor.

Critics charge that sports since the squashing of the 2011
popular revolt have largely served as attempts to bolster Bahrain’s tarnished
image. “There are no sports since the uprising. Matches serve as PR to show
that Bahrain is back to normal,” said Faisal Hayyat, a Bahraini sports
journalist and activist – an assertion that was also reflected in Sheikh Salman’s
decision to hold AFC’s annual congress earlier this year in Bahrain rather than
at the group’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

FIFA has yet to detail what integrity checks of its
executives and presidential candidates will entail. Evaluation of Sheikh Salman’s
presidential candidacy is likely to put the integrity of those checks to the
test.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

In its first-ever video message in Hebrew, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has sent out a threat that “not one Jew will remain in Jerusalem,” amid recently escalating Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

But the video, released on Friday, has so far failed to attract official Israeli attention – in contrast to Israel’s previous persistent finger-pointing at ISIS.

Israeli officials have now noticeably diverted their attention to a deadly surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence, predominantly in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Have Israeli concerns over ISIS now taken a back seat?

Overshadowing fears

“For Israel, the escalation with the Palestinians has overshadowed its concerns over ISIS in neighboring Syria,” Lina Khatib, a London-based Senior Research Associate at the Arab Reform Initiative, told Al Arabiya News on Saturday.

ISIS's latest threats directed at Israel: "We assure you that soon there will not be a single Jew left in Jerusalem and throughout the country."

Now, instead of a continued focus on ISIS’s threat to Israeli security, Israeli statements have recently become centered on anti-Palestinian rhetoric, as seen in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last U.N. General Assembly speech, as well as his recent controversial remark that a Palestinian was directly responsible for the Holocaust.

And while ISIS is now appearing to position itself as supporters of the Palestinian people, it has previously threatened to “uproot” Hamas in Gaza in a video released last July.

There have reportedly been at least a dozen attacks this year on Hamas in Gaza by ISIS sympathizers, including four in May. One bomb hit a Hamas security checkpoint in northern Gaza. A few days later, another exploded in a trash can. Another blew up next to a Gaza City high-rise, and a small one targeted a chicken store owned by Hamas intelligence official Saber Siyam.

On the day that ISIS threatened Hamas, Israeli Intelligence minister Israel Katz said there was “cooperation” between Hamas and ISIS “in the realm of weapons smuggling and terrorist attacks… At the same time, within Gaza, ISIS has been flouting Hamas. But they have common cause against the Jews, in Israel or abroad.”

Israel and ISIS’s aligned hatred

But while Israeli officials have repeatedly combined Hamas and ISIS in their rhetoric, the view that ISIS and Israel also have common concepts – a shared hostility towards Hamas and the Palestinian Authority – has not gone unmentioned.

ISIS video earlier this year threatened to overthrow Hamas in Gaza. (YouTube)

Explaining the Israel-Hamas-ISIS “hate triangle,” Khatib said that “ISIS leaders have often declared that fighting apostate Sunnis is a priority over fighting Jews. The ISIS threats directed at Hamas and the Palestinian Authority fall under this category.

“With Israel taking an antagonistic stance to the Palestinian Authority as well as its continuing antagonism towards Hamas, Israel has come to be aligned with the position of ISIS,” Khatib added.

Meanwhile, “ISIS is seeking to use worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence to increase its visibility in this arena,” Middle East historian Olivia L. Sohns told Al Arabiya News following the release of the new ISIS video.

Sohns said the militant group “is attempting to position itself as the champion of the Sunni Muslim world and is extremely hostile towards the West and Israel, which it considers a transplant of the West in the Middle East.”

Less of a threat?

Israel’s spotlight on ISIS has now dimmed with escalating violence in Jerusalem and West Bank, claiming the lives of at least 51 Palestinians and nine Israelis in the past month.

“Israel’s main concern today is to stabilize the situation with the Palestinians,” Dr. Alon Ben Meir, an American academic specializing in peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states, told Al Arabiya News.

“Israel understands all too well that they have to deal, now and in the future, with the Palestinians, and it also understands that ISIS will not survive in the long run, whereas the Palestinian conflict will remain present until it is resolved.

“And Netanyahu knows all too well that further escalation will only antagonize the international community and increase pressure on him to contact the conflict, the sooner the better,” Ben Meir added.

Israeli soldiers and policemen take position during clashes with Palestinians near the Jewish settlement of Bet El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Reuters)

But in response to claims that ISIS and Israel are “pursuing the same goals” in the Middle East, Ben Meir said: “I do not believe that you will ever find Israel, in any shape or form, supporting ISIS or “fighting on the same side.”

Middle East analyst James Dorsey, who has written extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, agrees.

“I think its stretching things by far to conclude that Israel and ISIS could find common ground, particularly in their opposition to Hamas.

“Obviously, the wave of Palestinian protests and attacks is Israel’s most immediate concern … Having said that, it does not mean that Israel is taking its eye of the ball in Syria. ISIS too poses a serious threat even if Israel is not ISIS’s immediate focus,” Dorsey added.

It is also probable that Israel’s concerns over ISIS have taken a back seat following ally Russia’s decision to carry out strikes on militant targets in Syria.

Still, Tel Aviv’s response to the latest ISIS threat remains to be seen. An Israeli interior ministry spokesperson contacted by Al Arabiya News did not respond to a request for comment on Israel’s security concerns.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

As Egyptian general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi
struggled this week to get Egyptians to cast their vote in parliamentary
elections, militant soccer fans put widespread youth disillusionment with the
president’s autocratic rule on public display.

More than 10,000 fans rushed in response to a call by Ultras
Ahlawy, the militant support group of storied Cairo club Al Ahli SC, to the
Mokhtar al-Touch Stadium on election Sunday to watch their storied team train. It
was the club’s first training since it last week won the Egyptian Super Cup.

Ultras Ahlawy issued the brief call on its Facebook page that
has more than 1.1 million followers. Ultras Ahlawy together with other militant
fan groups has played a key role in anti-government protests in the last 4.5
years starting with the 2011 popular revolt that toppled President Hosni
Mubarak.

Fan neglect of the election reflected a widespread sentiment
among Egyptian youth expressed by a hashtag #badalmatantakhib or
#insteadofvoting that was trending on Twitter.

"Youth see no hope for the future in the current
elections. They are the ones that are every day the most attacked and accused
of treason on television no matter whether they are engaged in politics or
sports. How can they trust you and participate with you in the political
process?,” activist Khaled Talima asked on Facebook.

Mr. Sisi’s government failed to persuade Egyptians to cast
their vote on Sunday and Monday in the first of a two-stage parliamentary
election, the first since Mr. Sisi staged a coup in 2013 that toppled Mohammed
Morsi, Egypt’s first and only democratically elected president. The second
phase of the election is scheduled for November 22 and 23.

Mr. Sisi gave government employees half a day off on Monday in
the hope that they would use their free time to go to polling stations.
Journalists surveying the stations estimated turnout at 15 percent at best
despite pro-government and state-owned television stations repeatedly urging
Egyptians to cast their vote.

The fan’s demonstrative neglect of the election and the low
turnout highlight Mr. Al Sisi’s failed attempt over the last two years to
depoliticize a generation that was emboldened by its success in overthrowing
Mr. Mubarak after 30 years in office and angered by the fact that youth were
subsequently side lined and have since seen their hard fought achievements
rolled back.

Youth disillusionment was already evident in low participation
in a constitutional referendum last year that paved the way for this week’s
election.

The new constitution envisages a transition from autocratic
rule to a presidential system with an empowered parliament. In theory, the new
parliament would have the power to impeach the president, question the prime
minister and withdraw its confidence in him. A majority of the 568 seats in
parliament will however be filled by individuals rather than parties, many of
who were associated with Mr. Mubarak’s now defunct National Democratic Party
(NDP)

Critics of Mr. Al Sisi fear that with major opposition
groups like the Brotherhood barred from participating in the election, the new
parliament will be packed with supporters of the president who could call for a
new referendum to revise the constitution, curb the assembly’s powers and
strengthen the power of the presidency.

Mr. Al Sisi has ruled with an iron fist since coming to
power. He has banned Mr. Morsi’s Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and
cracked down on both Islamist and secular opposition and dissent. Thousands
have been put behind bars and more than 1,000 people have been killed by
security forces since the 2013 coup.

Mr. Al Sisi has promised to involve youth by creating a
National Youth Council, increasing opportunities for youth participation in
politics, and enhancing scholarship openings for study overseas.

At the same time, the president has warned students and
youth from engaging in activity “with questionable political goals that serve
the interests of unpatriotic groups in their endeavour to destroy the nation.”

Mr. Al Sisi’s warning appears to have fallen on deaf ears
with a large number of students, fans and youths evidently putting little faith
in his promises.

In a statement, Ultras Ahlawy called on soccer fans to next
week attend Al Ahli’s first match in the Egyptian Premier League’s new season.
Fans have largely been banned from stadia since the popular revolt against Mr.
Mubarak erupted in 2011 in a bid to prevent stadia from becoming opposition
rallying points and a staging ground for fan protests.

"Football fans want to return to their ordinary place.
Ahli fans attended the Orlando Pirates match and a lot of training sessions
without any problems,” the group noted, referring to a recent African
Confederation Cup game for which the spectator ban was briefly lifted.

"We suggested many ideas to solve the problem (of the
ban) but in vain. Speaking about the difficulty of allowing fans to attend
matches amid the current parliamentary elections is strange. If the officials
are busy with the elections, they can let the football fans go to games. They
can manage the matter better by themselves,” the statement said.

"Starting the new season without fans is an extension
of killing Egyptian football, so all the group members will be gathering at the
Petro sport stadium to attend the match. Football is for fans," it said in
a move that could renew confrontation with security forces.

Sports Minister Khaled Abdel-Aziz promised in September to
allow fans to attend home matches of the Egyptian national team but has yet to
make good on his promise. The Egyptian Football Association has said for years
that it was negotiating security arrangements with the interior ministry that
would lead to a lifting of the spectator ban.

Some 20 fans were killed in February, when fans tried to
gain entry to a stadium for a match for which the spectator ban had been lifted
in an incident that reinforced the need for reform of a security force that for
years has been allowed to act with impunity.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

A Swiss government-sponsored unit of the Paris-based
Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has defined world
soccer body FIFA as a multi-national bound by the group’s guidelines. As a
result, the group concluded that FIFA is responsible for the upholding of the
human and labour rights of workers employed in Qatar on 2022 World Cup-related
projects.

The decision by the OECD, which groups 34 of the world’s
richest countries, in response to a trade union complaint about the violation
of workers’ rights, rejected FIFA’s argument that the soccer body was a
non-profit group and an association under Swiss law rather than a corporation
and its attempts to absolve itself of responsibility for sub-standard labour
conditions on projects that fall under the group’s contract with Qatar.

In its complaint to the OECD, trade union Building and Wood
Workers’ International (BWI) asserted that the awarding of the 2022 World Cup
to Qatar violated OECD guidelines given that the Gulf state’s widespread
violation of human rights had long been known and documented. It said further
that FIFA had failed to conduct due diligence, lacked a human rights policy as
required by the non-binding guidelines, and had refrained from ensuring that
its projects would not have an adverse impact on human rights.

FIFA while rejecting responsibility has said it was working
with Qatari authorities to improve labour conditions in the Gulf state.

The OECD decision could not have come at a worse moment for
FIFA, already embroiled in the worst corruption scandal in its history that has
led to the suspension or banning of senior managers, including recently
suspended president Sepp Blatter and Union of European Football Associations
(UEFA) president Michel Platini, who both have close ties to Qatar.

A Swiss judicial enquiry is investigating potential
wrongdoing in Qatar’s controversial bid while a US Department of Justice
investigation into FIFA corruption could expand to include the Gulf state’s
bid.

Qatar has said it had yet to be contacted by Swiss
investigators but would fully cooperate with the enquiry. Qatar has repeatedly
denied any wrongdoing in its controversial bid.

Qatar could also become a US justice department focus given that Singapore-based
World Sport Group (WSG) is likely on the department’s radar because it acquired
the international broadcasting rights of the Gold Cup and CONCACAF Champions
League operated by the soccer confederation for North, Central America and the
Caribbean together
with Traffic, one of the sport marketing companies indicted in the US.

Traffic´s owner, Brazilian businessman Jose Hawilla, is
cooperating with the FBI in its FIFA investigation, a lawyer for Mr. Hawilla told
The Wall Street Journal. Under the agreement, Mr. Hawilla has admitted to
crimes including money laundering, fraud, extortion, and has agreed to return
$151 million in funds.

WSG has a $1 billion marketing rights agreement with the
Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that was negotiated by then AFC president
Mohammed Bin Hammam, a Qatari national who despite Qatari denials appears to
have played an important role in the Gulf state’s World Cup bid.

Mr. Bin Hammam has since been banned for life by FIFA from
involvement in professional soccer.

A PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) audit raised
questions of potential bribery in the signing of the contract and advise the
AFC to seek legal advice on either renegotiating or cancelling the contract.

AFC’s failure to act on PwC’s advice could dog the group’s
president, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, who is expected to announce
his candidacy for the FIFA presidency in the coming days. FIFA is scheduled to
elect a new leader in February to replace Mr. Blatter.

Mr. Blatter has long asserted that FIFA was not responsible
for labour conditions in Qatar that have been denounced by international trade
unions and human rights group as modern slavery even though he at times has
called for reform of the Gulf state’s kafala or sponsorship system that put
employees at the mercy of their employers.

Qatar’s 2022 Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, Qatar
Foundation and Qatar Rail have in response to the criticism adopted standards
that go a far way to improve labour condition within the context of existing
Qatari legislation. Qatar has yet to incorporate those standards in law.

Responding to OECD questions, FIFA asserted somewhat disingenuously
that its Qatari counterparts, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) as well as
the bid and supreme committee were organizations that were independent of the
government.

In a further bow to trade union demands that Qatar allow the
formation of independent trade unions and collective bargaining, Qatari players
this month founded the Qatar Players Association (QPA).

“We want to provide all players with the necessary
protection. Our aim is to support, advise and represent our members at the
local and international organisations in case of disputes. The QPA wants to
support the football system in the country. You’ve noticed some of the issues —
financial and others — between the players and clubs in Qatar. The QPA wants to
represent the players and thus reduce the pressure on the QFA,” said QPA
president Salman Al Ansari.

Qatar has suffered significant reputational damage as a
result of high-profile labour disputes with foreign players, whose careers were
significantly disrupted because they were not allowed to leave the country for extended
periods of time under the kafala system while they sought to resolve their
issues.

The degree of social segregation in Qatar, a country in
which foreigners account for more than 80 percent of the population was highlighted
this month with the publication by the municipality and urban planning ministry
of interactive
maps that identify areas in which migrant workers cannot be housed.

The no-go zones that include central Doha are described as ‘family
housing areas,’ which forces employers to house workers on the outskirts of the
city. The ban does not apply to service sector personnel and professionals.

Writing in The
Peninsula, Qatari columnist Rashed Al Audah Al Fadly complained that the
long-standing ban was not being strictly implemented. “These bachelor workers
are threatening the privacy and comfort of families, spreading like a deadly
epidemic that eats through our social fabric,” Mr. Al Fadly said in a
reflection of Qatari fears that their culture is threatened by the massive
influx of foreign labour, some of which were contracted for World Cup-related
projects.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

The Israel Football Association (IFA) acting on orders of
the police has suspended what it calls ‘sensitive’ matches, a reference to professional
and amateur games between Israeli Jewish and Israeli Palestinian squads.

Police said the suspension on soccer pitches that have long
signalled mounting tensions, violence, and racism in Israeli society was
because their forces where stretched to the limit in attempting to prevent
Palestinian lone wolf attacks on Israeli Jews.

The police and Israeli military have been accused in recent
weeks of using excessive force, including shoot-to-kill, in their effort to
counter mushrooming peaceful and violent protests in against Israeli occupation
of the West Bank.

Supporters of arch rivals Beitar Jerusalem, Israel’s most
hard line anti-Palestinian club, and Bnei Sakhnin, the only Israeli Palestinian
team in the premier league, hurled rocks at one another earlier this month. Last
month, shots were fired when supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv clashed with Palestinians
who were celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

A militant support group, Maccabi Tel Aviv Fanatics, hoisted
a banner during a match saying “Refugees Not Welcome,” after their club said it
alongside some 80 teams competing in the Champions and Europa League would
donate 1 euro per ticket to support Syrian refugees from their first home
games. The banner was a play on banners saying “Refugees Welcome” that are
frequently hoisted by fans in European stadia.

Two other recent incidents highlight the degree to which
violence has become rooted in Israeli society as it is a tool in Palestinian
resistance to Israeli rule among disenchanted and disenfranchised West Bank
youth.

“We are all human beings we are all equal. It does not
matter if an Arab stabbed me or a Jew stabbed me, a religious, orthodox or
secular person. I have no words to describe this hate crime,” Uzi Rezken, a supermarket
employee, told Israeli television. Mr. Rezken was speaking from his hospital
bed after having been stabbed by an Israeli Jew who mistook him for being a
Palestinian.

“You deserve it, you deserve it. You are bastard Arabs,” Mr.
Rezken quoted his attacker as saying as the supermarket employee shouted at him
that he was Jewish, not Palestinian.

Days earlier, members of La Familia, Israel’s most violent,
racist soccer fan group that supports Beitar Jerusalem, the only top Israeli club
that refuses to hire Palestinian or Muslim players, attacked a supporter of
rival club Hapoel Tel Aviv with an axe.

Members of La Familia wearing Beitar T-shirts, many of who
openly support the outlawed racist Kach party, marched earlier this month
alongside supporters of Lechava, a right-wing grouping seeking to prevent the
assimilation of non-Jews in Israel through Jerusalem shouting "Death to
Arabs" and “Mohammed is dead,” slogans frequently heard on the stands
during Beitar matches, and “may your village burn." Palestinians account
for about 20 percent of Israel’s citizenry.

The soccer violence with La Familia in the lead is likely to
complicate Israeli efforts to ensure that world soccer body FIFA does not
become the first international organization to suspend Israel. Israel evaded
suspension last May when Palestine withdrew a resolution demanding that Israel
be penalized for its policies, including racism in soccer. A FIFA committee is
seeking to mediate an Israeli-Palestinian compromise that in the current
environment is likely to prove increasingly difficult.

The Palestine Football Association (PFA) has been
documenting alleged violations of Israeli promises to work with FIFA and the
Palestinians to eliminate Israeli obstacles to the development and functioning
of Palestinian. Among incidents cited is Israel’s reported refusal earlier this
month to allow a player of the Palestinian national team to return to the West
Bank from the squad’s qualifier in Qatar for a regional tournament when he
arrived on an Israeli-controlled bridge linking the West Bank to Jordan.

The threat of a FIFA suspension weighs heavily with
international public opinion increasingly critical of Israel and the
Palestinians likely to step up their campaign to isolate Israel in
international organizations.

Spanish football club Sevilla FC recently rejected a $5.7
million sponsorship deal to advertise tourism in Israel on its players’ shirts.
The 2015 UEFA Europa League champions turned down the offer because it conjured
support for Israel, Spanish sports newspaper Mundo
Deportivo reported.

Israeli sports reporter Adi Rubinstein writing on his Facebook
page noted that soccer pitches often serve as early indicators of societal
trends. “What has been happening in Israel since… (last month’s) beginning of
(the Jewish calendar) year is more than anything else reminiscent of what happened
in Yugoslavia in 1990s. That is precisely how it started (there) How did it
end? Well, we all know,” he wrote referring to the Yugoslav wars.

Speaking to Al-Monitor,
Guy Israel, a member of La Familia, which has several of its members behind
bars and like Beitar Jerusalem faces several judicial and administrative
investigations, appeared to be downplaying the political and racist nature of
much of the group’s activity.

“It's a matter of letting off steam. At present, there are
restrictions on anything and everything. You mustn't swear, and you shouldn't
smoke in the pub. There is a long list of bans and prohibitions. You are
limited wherever you go. And the rage builds up inside you until it finally
explodes,” Mr. Israel said.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile